The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries’ GDP. What follows, is this slightly misleading map – misleading, because the economies both of the US states and of the countries they are compared with are not weighted for their respective populations.

Pakistan, for example, has a GDP that’s slightly higher than Israel’s – but Pakistan has a population of about 170 million, while Israel is only 7 million people strong. The US states those economies are compared with (Arkansas and Oregon, respectively) are much closer to each other in population: 2,7 million and 3,4 million.

And yet, wile a per capita GDP might give a good indication of the average wealth of citizens, a ranking of the economies on this map does serve two interesting purposes: it shows the size of US states’ economies relative to each other (California is the biggest, Wyoming the smallest), and it links those sizes with foreign economies (which are therefore also ranked: Mexico’s and Russia’s economies are about equal size, Ireland’s is twice as big as New Zealand’s). Here’s a run-down of the 50 states, plus DC:

Lots of fun facts there for the geographically minded. Such as: Mexico's GDP is about the same as Russia's? I had no idea. France is as big, GDP-wise, as California? I'd thought California much bigger than that. Florida = South Korea? I guess we do get a little work done down here in the Sunshine State.

Add this to the long and growing list of reasons we should walk away from the United Nations:

Last Friday, March 9, 2007 the UN wrapped up its annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Guess where they found a violation of women's rights? Among the hundreds of thousands of women who are dead, dying, mutilated, displaced or raped in Sudan? Among the million female migrant workers cowering in the basements of Saudi Arabian villas from the taskmasters who stole their passports the minute they got off the plane? Among the women stoned and hanged for "adultery" in Iran? The millions of women forcibly aborted in China? The thousands murdered or forced to commit suicide for the crime of "dishonoring" their fathers and brothers across the Arab and Muslim world?

If you guessed "none of the above," then you'll enjoy coming on down to the UN. The UN's lead body charged with promoting and protecting women's rights identifies only one state as violating the rights of women in the world today – Israel.(Violating the rights of Palestinian women.) The vote was 40 for and 2 against (the United States and Canada).

Germany, on behalf of the European Union, gave a one minute "explanation" excusing its affirmative vote.

The United Nations Development Programme office in Pyongyang, North Korea, sits in a Soviet-style compound. Like clockwork, a North Korean official wearing a standard-issue dark windbreaker and slacks would come to the door each business day.

He would take a manila envelope stuffed with cash — a healthy portion of the U.N.'s disbursements for aid projects in the country — and leave without ever providing receipts.

According to sources at the U.N., this went on for years, resulting in the transfer of up to $150 million in hard foreign currency to the Kim Jong Il government at a time when the United States was trying to keep the North Korean government from receiving hard currency as part of its sanctions against the Kim regime.

"At the end, we were being used completely as an ATM machine for the regime," said one U.N. official with extensive knowledge of the program. "We were completely a cash cow, the only cash cow in town. The money was going to the regime whenever they wanted it."

The development program, known as UNDP, quietly suspended operations in North Korea this month, saying it could not operate under guidelines imposed by its executive board in January that prohibited payments in hard currency and forbade the employment of local workers handpicked by the North Korean government.

But some diplomats suspect the timing of the suspension was heavily influenced by a looming audit that could have proved embarrassing to the U.N.

Interesting.

First, are you surprised? I'm not. I can't even generate any outrage. This is what the UN does, this is what it's about. It's dog-bites-man. No, it's more basic, more in general purpose every day character than dog-bites-man, it's dog-sniffs-butt.

Second, good luck to the new Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with his audit. Like he's free of corruption himself. Sure. Nudge nudge wink wink. But even if Ban is serious and above board, his shiny new audit will go nowhere. Hey, how's that Oil for Food investigation going? The world's biggest scandal, swept under the rug.

Third. Seriously. Why do we want any part of the UN any more? Why shouldn't we pull out of it tomorrow?

The UN is proposing, as usual, an international peacekeeping force to secure the peace in Lebanon. At first blush, it sounds like the usual UN gibberish, which it is if the forces were placed on the Lebanese Hezbollah border with Israel. But, if they put their line behind Hezbollah's forces, something like drawn in below, and put in enough road blocks with sufficient forces to contain the terrorists, and then let Israel finish the job that needs doing, that would be worthwhile.

So far, the most amazing thing about this little war are the dogs that aren't barking. No condemnation & threats againt Israel from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. That could be huge.

In my vanishing spare time, I've been reading Haj by Leon Uris. Man, those Arab boys are some sick puppies.

I wish the USAF was lending a big iron hand in southern Lebanon right now.

From a new found comrade Mike the Marine, and it's so obvious, America is Batman.

I couldn't agree more. Although I'd say Canada used to be Alfred, and might be Alfred again, but right now is the Joker's (aka FRANCE's) mol, which is a downright dirty shame but true.

"... America IS Batman. Think about it:

-We are the richest guy in town. We run Wayne Enterprises. We have more money than everybody. We can be extravagant, buying hotels and building sometimes self-important stuff on a whim. But a lot of that is not really what we’re all about… people often forget that we’re the most philanthropic guy in town, too.

- Where do we get those wonderful toys? From a lot of places actually, but we’re the only one who has them, and we use them to kick a lot of ass.

- We’ve suffered tragedy, and it was this tragedy which spurred us to action. We have overcome our worst fears and then visited them upon evil doers. Justice is what we are after, and we will not stop until the good people of Gotham don’t need the Batsignal anymore.

The rest of the Westernized World, however, is Rachel Dawes - Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend - played by Katie Holmes. How so?

- She’s a lawyer, more interested in “the process,” and under the impression that justice and vengeance are always mutually exclusive, when in actuality we know that they sometimes – not always, but sometimes - happily coincide...."

1. For the most part, countries are grouped here by region - trends in population tend to be more regional than national.

2. The eye-popping figures for Bangladesh really stick out - there's no country on earth close to Bangladesh's overpopulation problem. Bangladesh squeezes half the population of the United States into a land mass smaller than Iowa.

Whoa! The density of Bangledesh is 69 times that of the United States. Simply amazing.

Seen at low tide

HummingbirdFinally, my first hummingbirds. Saw them on a fire bush in Crystal Beach, FL. My rental's neighbor's yard is all xeriscaped, which is ugly to me but just fine with the little hummers. At first, I thought they were the biggest hornets I'd ever seen.

Flamingo!One of these dudes flew right over my house. I couldn't believe it. And please don't tell me it was a roseated spoonbill because it was a frickin' flamingo, dude! Huge and pink and right there above me. I was like so freaking out, you know?

Black SkimmerThese beauties are getting scarce, but one flew by yesterday at low tide on the hunt for minnows.

Dead sea turtlecool, but smelly

Reddish EgretThese have been hanging out around the pool quite a bit lately. Must be a new group of adolesent birds -- the youngsters like to hunt where the water is clear, and it takes them a day to figure out there are not now and never will be fish in the swimming pool no matter how clear the water.

Sand Piper

Brown PelicanI saw a flock of about 200 of these at Disappearing Island yesterday, just south of Anclote Island on the west coast of FL. Good to see such a large flock.

Wood PeckerThey've developed a sudden interest in the orange tree, which just went into bloom.